On the evening of February 27, the 14th National Winter Games (hereinafter referred to as the "14th Winter") will come to an end.
The "14th Winter" is the most important review and training of China's ice and snow sports before the 2026 Milan Winter Olympics. It overall demonstrates the strong development momentum of China's ice and snow sports in the post-Beijing Winter Olympics era.
However, in terms of some of China’s advantageous ice and snow projects, the “14th Winter” left a mixed impression.
Star players start again
There are many Winter Olympic champions and world champions in the "Fourteenth Winter" competition, and their popularity is also significantly higher.
The performance of these champions also demonstrated to a large extent the Olympic competitiveness of their projects.
Short track speed skating is the "sharp knife" of China's ice and snow sports. The "Fourteen Winters" venue also gathered the most Winter Olympic champions in China's ice and snow sports, including Wu Dajing, Ren Ziwei, Fan Kexin, Qu Chunyu, Liu Shaolin, Liu Shao'ang, and Lin Xiaojuan. wait.
Especially in the men's short track speed skating competition, the "14th Winter" can be described as a gathering of stars.
However, none of the above-mentioned Winter Olympic champions in the men's event ended up on the highest podium at the "14th Winter" station. Sun Long of the Jilin team won the gold medals in three individual events: 500 meters, 1000 meters, and 1500 meters. , and won the men's 5,000-meter relay gold medal with his teammates, causing the biggest upset in the "14th Winter" short track speed skating competition.
As the main member of the Chinese short track speed skating national team, Sun Long has the ability to win national championships. However, the fact that one person won all the gold medals in the men's event at the highest level in the country still reflects that the Chinese short track speed skating team may have encountered some problems.
Liu Shaoang said in an interview that due to the intensive international short track speed skating competitions this winter, the team members are relatively tired.
However, the Winter Olympics champions are all leaders of the Chinese short track speed skating team, and it is their duty to play a leading role in the competition.
In the "14th Winter" competition, it is not a normal phenomenon that the Winter Olympic champions of the men's team collectively missed the gold medal.
In the figure skating arena of the "14th Winter", as the pairs skating champions Sui Wenjing/Han Cong of the Beijing Winter Olympics have transformed into choreographers and technical officials respectively, the baton of China's pairs skating project has been handed over to Peng, who is also a veteran. In the hands of Cheng/Wang Lei.
In men's single skating and ice dance, the strength of Jin Boyang, Wang Shiyue/Liu Xinyu is still unmatched.
Although the development of domestic figure skating has now entered a stage where newcomers are emerging in large numbers, looking forward to the Milan Winter Olympics, the important task of achieving results for Chinese figure skating still falls on the shoulders of several veterans.
In the freestyle skiing aerials event, Xu Mengtao and Jia Zongyang, two veterans in their thirties, are still fighting hard.
The two veterans still have enthusiasm for competing in another Winter Olympics, but the one who is more determined is Kong Fanyu, who won the women's competition. At nearly 30 years old, he finally won the gold medal in his third National Winter Games.
In the past season, Kong Fanyu won the World Championships for the first time.
Kong Fanyu believes that age will never be a problem in pursuing the Olympic dream.
At the Beijing Winter Olympics, young skier Su Yiming soared into the sky and became the idol of countless skiing teenagers.
In the "Fourteenth Winter" competition, Su Yiming took two gold medals as the best gift for his 20th birthday. Perhaps he had a wish to continue competing for gold in the Milan Winter Olympics.
As a top star in domestic ice and snow sports, Su Yiming knows that what he needs to do now is far more than just achieving good results. "As a snowboarder, I not only need to achieve better results in the competition, but I also have a particularly important The mission is to promote skiing and let more people understand and accept this sport."
New talents emerge in ice and snow sports
On the afternoon of February 25, the final results of the "Fourteenth Winter" figure skating pairs competition were decided. As the current number one pair skating team in China, Peng Cheng/Wang Lei won the championship. It is reasonable, but this championship is hard-won.
In the pairs free skating event that day, Peng Cheng/Wang Lei ranked second, and Tianjin players Zhang Jiaxuan/Huang Yihang ranked first. Among them, Zhang Jiaxuan is only 16 years old.
Relying on the lead in the short program, Peng Cheng/Wang Lei finally won the "14th Winter" pairs skating championship.
Due to his young age, Zhang Jiaxuan is not yet able to participate in international competitions in the adult category. However, the dazzling performance of this pair of skaters in the "14th Winter", especially the perfect performance of some difficult moves, still gave people a glimpse of the future of China's pairs skating. hope.
In fact, Zhang Jiaxuan is not the youngest in the pairs skating competition during the "Fourteenth Winter".
There are also several young players aged 12 or 13 who are also eye-catching.
After the Beijing Winter Olympics, as Sui Wenjing/Han Cong bid farewell to the competition, many ice fans lamented helplessly that the golden era of Chinese pairs skating may have come to an end.
As for when the third pair of Winter Olympic champions will be born in China's pairs skating, it is difficult to predict for the time being.
However, through the "14th Winter", we can at least see that there are successors to China's pairs skating project, and the number of people is booming.
Shen Xue, chairman of the Chinese Figure Skating Association, once said that figure skating is becoming a popular sport among Chinese teenagers. The number of teenagers participating in figure skating in China has increased several times in the past few years, and the development of the entire project has completely gone beyond the Northeast and is spreading across the country. Every major city is blooming.
The young skaters on the "14th Winter" figure skating competition are eye-catching, which is a true portrayal of China's figure skating movement from being unpopular to becoming popular.
In fact, it’s not just figure skating that’s popular among teenagers.
The project setting of “Fourteenth Winter” reflects this trend.
There are youth groups in ice sports such as short track speed skating, speed skating, figure skating, and curling, as well as snow sports such as snowboarding, freestyle skiing, ski jumping, alpine skiing, and cross-country skiing, providing more opportunities for young athletes. There are many opportunities to participate, and many young talents have emerged.
For example, at the "14th Winter" short track speed skating youth competition held in advance, 17-year-old Yang Jingru won the women's 1,000-meter gold medal, 1,500-meter bronze medal and 3,000-meter relay silver medal.
Subsequently, she was recruited into the Chinese Winter Youth Olympic team.
Won 2 gold medals and 1 silver at the Gangwon Province Winter Youth Olympic Games held not long ago.
In particular, she used the "rabbit tactic" to win the first gold medal for the Chinese delegation in this Winter Youth Olympic Games. Her strength and awareness showed, and she won praise from netizens across the country.
In the "14th Winter" freestyle skiing aerials competition for the youth group, the strength and performance of the young players were no less than the main players of the national team in the open group.
Chen Xuezheng, who won the women's championship in the "Fourteenth Winter" freestyle skiing aerials youth category, scored 91.29 points on an action with a difficulty coefficient of 3.5250. The score of this action was only 3.53 points lower than the previous day's open category women's champion Kong Fanyu.
In the men's competition, Li Xinpeng won the championship with an action with a difficulty coefficient of 4.5250, scoring 122.17 points. This score was higher than the scores of all players who performed the same action in the men's open group the previous day.
Weak projects look forward to breakthroughs
China's ice and snow sports have made great progress, but after all, there are only a few advantageous projects, and there are still many projects that need to be further improved and developed.
On February 23, the "Fourteenth Winter" biathlon competition came to a close in the Liangcheng Division of Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia. After the competition, the podium turned into a "star-chasing field", with contestant Chu Yuanmeng holding his The 4 gold medals and 2 silver medals won in this tournament took photos with everyone.
Chu Yuanmeng, born in 1999, is the player with the most medals in the "14th Winter" biathlon event.
But in the Winter Olympics, China's biathlon is still far behind the world's leading level.
Chu Yuanmeng ranked 12th in the women's biathlon 4×6 kilometer relay race at the Beijing Winter Olympics, 35th in the women's 15-kilometer individual race, and 61st in the women's 7.5-kilometer sprint.
Chu Yuanmeng said: "The top 60 individuals in the 7.5-kilometer sprint entered the finals. It's a pity (not making it). I set a goal at that time. I must make it to the Milan Winter Olympics!"
There are still two years until the 2026 Milan Winter Olympics, and Chu Yuanmeng believes that “we will make a breakthrough in performance.”
In the cross-country skiing competition of the "14th Winter", Chongqing team player Wang Qiang won the "Five Crowns".
As the leader of China's cross-country skiing, Wang Qiang has participated in many international competitions such as the Beijing Winter Olympics and the Cross-Country Skiing World Cup. He has twice set the best results in China's cross-country skiing, but he still lags behind the world's advanced level.
Wang Qiang signed up for a total of 6 cross-country skiing events during the "14th Winter". Wang Qiang said: "Whether it is a short-distance event or a long-distance event, I participated from beginning to end and never gave up."
Wang Qiang regards the "14th Winter" as a "big training", "I want to prove that I can skate at any distance."
The goal is to make China's cross-country skiing achieve an early breakthrough. He said: "I have always wanted to make a mark in the World Cup, just to let our younger generation of athletes see opportunities and hope - it is not impossible for our Chinese cross-country skiing to achieve results in the world. .”
"Next, I will continue to work hard and take every step to welcome the Asian Winter Games, World Championships and Milan Winter Olympics." Wang Qiang said that he is confident in himself and in the future of China's cross-country skiing.
This newspaper's Hulunbuir and Ulanqab reports on February 26
China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily reporter Cixin Shijia Source: China Youth Daily